The Importance Of Protecting Your Customer’s Information

Whether you deal with selling items or services online or in a store, there are risks when it comes to your customer’s personal information. Even the POS cash register systems that many retail chains use are subject to hackers since they work over the internet, and without the proper protection these hackers can walk away with more than just people’s credit card numbers.

As you can see, there are many levels at which a business needs to work to protect their customers and their information. So, how do you do it?

Secure Emails

It starts with making sure that your computer systems, yes, even cash registers, all have virus and malware protection running on them at all times. These two attackers are both different, and can both cause tons of havoc if you get hit with them. Run your checkers every once in awhile as well, just to make sure nothing slipped by them.

You may end up sending a virus to someone else through email. But, worse than that, if you are sending emails with private information and a hacker gets ahold of it you are the one accountable. Sending encrypted emails is pretty much the best way around this.

Secure Websites

While you have your own security to keep people out of your business when it comes to your computer systems, you also want to make sure you are protecting people that may be shopping with you online. That means having a secure server setup. Most people know if the web address has https, instead of http, it’s a safer bet when it comes to entering their personal information, like credit card numbers.

You’ll need a certificate for this kind of secure server setup. However, you can easily find the instructions for this online.

Use Encryption Software

Again, encryption can be one of the best ways to hide things from hackers. It makes it much harder for them to access the information. While you can generally set up encryption for emails through your email server, you may want to purchase some software to encrypt files and other information that is stored on your computer and prone to attack.

Your clients want to know that they are safe doing business with you, and the best way to do that is to ensure that they are. Even if you are still keeping hard copies of their information on hand, and not just storing it all online or in a cloud server, you want to make sure it’s locked up and safe and that you are shredding things that contain names, addresses, and other personal information. You’ll have safe and happy customers and they’ll keep coming back because they know you care about their privacy.